1. Technical Field:
The present invention relates in general to telecommunications and, in particular, to call hold centers. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to managing a caller profile across multiple call hold centers.
(1) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/005,680;
(2) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/006,004;
(3) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/004,664; and
(4) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/005,828.
2. Description of the Related Art:
Many companies provide telephone-based access to help staff, sales personnel, representatives, and automated menus via a call center. Where high telephone call traffic is typical in telephone access to a company""s representatives, a PBX system receives the call and distributes the call to an automatic call distributor (ACD), thus incorporating a hold function in the call center. ACDs are often employed to provide an even and systematic distribution of incoming calls to multiple representatives. In particular, ACDs typically provide incoming calls with a direct connection to an available representative until all representatives are busy. Then, calling parties are placed in a call queue, and selectively connected to a representative once a representative comes available.
Call queues may cause frustration and ill will of consumers towards a company, particularly where excessively long waits, full queues and accidental disconnects are encountered. One way to alleviate some of the frustration associated with call queues is by specifying services and information provided to the caller while a caller waits in a call queue.
For example, services may be specified to a caller by specifying automated messages output to a caller, while the caller is on hold in a call hold queue, according to the products owned by a caller, the caller""s expertise, and messages that have been previously played to the caller while on hold. In particular, a database local to the call hold queue may store information about each caller, including the products owned by each caller, each caller""s expertise and previous call content with the caller.
In another example, a caller may designate service preferences to a call center via a web page. The service preferences are then utilized by the call center while the caller is on hold to specify a menu of services provided to the caller while on hold.
However, the examples previously described provide for specifying output to a caller while the caller is on hold, the examples are limited in that each individual call center stores an individual profile, requiring a caller to enter a new profile at each call center. Requiring a new profile entry at each call center is time consuming and cancels the advantages of specified output. In addition, a caller may only call a call center one time, storing a profile there, and never calling again to take advantage of the logged profile, thus wasting resources and time.
Services that may be provided to a caller while waiting include news, music, weather, and other audio information. A call hold center receiving a call may allow a caller to select a general service, such as music and then a sub-service, such as the type of music. The call hold center then transfers the call to a third-party provider of the service. Multiple call centers may utilize a single third-party provider for services. However, where multiple call centers utilize the same third-party music provider, a caller may end up hearing the same song or group of songs each time the caller is placed on hold.
Therefore, in view of the foregoing, it would be advantageous to provide a method, system, and program for storing and managing caller profiles at a single remote caller profile server that distributes the caller profiles to multiple call centers where callers are on hold. In addition, in view of the foregoing, it would be advantageous to monitor and record caller activity while callers are on hold, such that future services may be tailored to avoid repetition of past services across multiple call centers and to further tailor services according to previous activity while on hold.
In view of the foregoing, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved telecommunications system.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method, system and program for improved call hold queues.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method, system and program for managing a caller profile across multiple call hold centers.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a request for a profile of a particular caller is received from a first call hold system at a remote profile system, wherein said particular caller is on hold at the first call hold system. The profile is transferred from the remote profile system to the first call hold system. Then, another request for a profile of the same particular caller is received at the remote profile system from a second call hold system, wherein the same particular caller is on hold at the second call hold system. The profile is transferred from the remote profile system to the second call hold system. Preferably, both call hold systems are enabled to utilize the profile to specify services offered to the caller while the caller is on hold at the call hold system.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, an identifier is detected for a received call. A request is transferred to a remote profile server for a caller profile associated with the identifier, wherein the remote profile server is enabled to supply the caller profile for the identifier to multiple independent call centers. In response to receiving the caller profile associated with the identifier, services available for a caller of the received call are specified according to the caller profile while the received call is placed on hold.
All objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed written description.